Charity Runners Make Rapid Gains

Competitors Are Raising Millions For Good Causes Through Pledges In Marathons.

January 11, 2004|By Sandra Mathers, Sentinel Staff Writer

When the throng of runners steps off this morning in the Walt Disney World Marathon, the 2,057 competitors clad in matching purple shirts are sure to be noticed.

These runners for the national Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are the largest group under a single banner in the popular endurance event.

But the group's size pales in comparison to another number: $6.6 million raised for their charity just in today's race.

Since 1988, society runners -- mostly novices -- have been blazing a trail to personal health and charity wealth in marathons, and their success has not gone unnoticed.

This year, 11 national charities, raising money for everything from AIDS to neurofibromatosis, have entered runners and walkers in the Disney marathon. Altogether, they represent 3,557 runners, or about 15 percent of the 24,000 people registered for the event.

"We've had as many as 5,000 charity runners in past events," Disney publicist Bill Hofheimer said.

At stake: a windfall of pledges worth millions, despite still-rocky economic conditions that leave other less-savvy charities strapped for cash.

Organizations that raise money for medical research and patient services through marathons are capitalizing on their runners' commitment to a cause and offering them intensive, professional training. Improved runner health is simply a perk.

Leading the fund-raising pack is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which last year grossed $82 million from marathons -- more than half of the $161 million it raised nationally, said Liza Munson, national director of the society's Team in Training runners program.

After expenses, $61.5 million of the $82 million was spent on financial assistance to leukemia patients, public education and medical research, Munson said.

Nearly $600,000 in grants went to three Florida research institutions, she said.

"Disney is our second-largest [marathon] event," Munson said. "We raised $12 million with 3,900 runners in the San Diego marathon last year."

Another 1,000 society runners will participate today in the inaugural Phoenix Marathon in Arizona, she said.

Not surprisingly, other charities are clamoring aboard the marathon bandwagon.

"We pretty much copied the leukemia society," said Denise Johnson, director of the American Stroke Association's marathon-training program in Orlando. "They raise so much money."

The association -- a division of the American Heart Association -- has been in the marathon business for three years. Last year, the charity grossed $10.4 million from marathons nationally, said Tony Covington, director of Florida's Train To End Stroke runners' program in Tampa.

This year's goal: $16 million.

"We started with a pilot at six affiliates in 2000," Covington said. "It was so successful, we rolled it out nationally midway through the year."

Three years ago, the stroke association raised just $770,000 after expenses, with about 426 runners, but the payoff has steadily increased -- from $5.6 million with 2,000 runners the second year to $9.2 million with more than 3,000 runners last year.

At the Disney marathon last year, 800 runners netted $4.2 million in cash pledges for the stroke association, Johnson said. This year, nearly 1,000 runners -- 84 from the Orlando area -- are at Disney.

The 84 local runners -- five of them stroke survivors -- raised $200,000, she said.

"It's just taken off," said Carrie Armstrong, the association's national training director.

While the National Arthritis Foundation entered fewer than 200 runners in today's marathon, it managed to raise $500,000, said Katie Williams of the foundation's Joints in Motion training program.

"We're trying to grow," said Williams, whose organization grossed $4.6 million in marathons last year.

MARATHON NEWCOMER

The little-known A-T Children's Project in Deerfield Beach has a similar story.

The national organization to benefit research for children with Ataxia-Telangiectasia, a fatal genetic neurological disease that affects about 600 U.S. families, is a newcomer to the world of marathons.

The group signed up 240 people in August to compete at Disney. Because the project has no in-house training program, most of them will walk, rather than run, a 13.1-mile half-marathon, project director Jennifer Thornton said.

Even so, the walkers have raised more than $500,000.

"We're thrilled," she said.

The key to the marathon phenomenon, charity officials said, is the runners. Most are women committed to their organization's cause.

"We have people directly off the couch," said Kim Vann, training coordinator for the leukemia society in Orlando. "A lot have never run before. They won't be the fastest in the race, but they can finish."

The idea, organizers say, is to offer a training program that interests as many people as possible: people who want to lose weight, who have a family member with the disease or who want to work for a cause.

"We tell them to contact everyone they can think of, even if they're sure someone won't give," said the leukemia society's Munson.

MOTIVATED RUNNER

That's what Jim Reinhardt did. He sent a letter to 250 friends, business acquaintances and family members and raised $8,000 -- the most raised among the society's 90 runners from Central Florida.

"I've always wanted to run in a marathon," said Reinhardt, owner of Dr. Jack's Pest Control. "Another motivation was my dad died of leukemia."

Valerie Greene of Winter Park did well, too. The 39-year-old stroke survivor raised more than $10,000 for the stroke association after being named the association's "stroke hero" for the Disney marathon.

After four months with a walking coach, she's hoofing it in the half-marathon -- a feat doctors predicted she couldn't accomplish. But Greene says she's ready.

"This [training] has amazingly improved my strength and stamina," said Greene, a former runner and financial planner who suffered two strokes at 31 that impaired her gait and speech. "I feel better."